• by August 24, 2004

NBC OLYMPICS: RINGS, G-STRINGS, AND A BIT OF BADDA-BING - The history books say Olympic competitions were originally performed in the nude. And if NBC had its way, they might well be televised that way today. Then again, given the salacious nature of NBC's coverage of the 2004 Athens Games, few viewers might notice the difference.

Maybe it's just us, but it sure seems that, given the ample body of events it has to draw from, NBC Sports has gone out of its way to select ones that highlight the human body, particularly female ones, and especially ones that are caught in suggestively revealing - and at times compromising - poses. Sure, we love watching women's beach volleyball, but since when did it merit such prominence in NBC's Olympic primetime schedule? The minute those Amazonian beauties squeezed into ill-fitting bikini bottoms, we suspect. And who else found it ironic when the Olympic contenders complained about the bikini-clad beach volleyball cheerleading section? They said it was disrespectful to the sport, but after watching last night's square off between the two medal-contending American teams, we suspect the real reason is that they resented the off-field competition.

It's not simply the nature of the events NBC has opted for, but the choice of camera angles, replays, and digitally-enhanced, super slow motion renderings of female athletes caught lunging, bending over, prostrate, or spread-eagle, that the peacock seems so preoccupied with. And it's not just women's beach volleyball but any event that can be even remotely titillating. Of course, events depicting lithe, hard-bodied female - and male - athletes bouncing, twisting, bending, and turning have always been among the most popularly televised and highest-rated in the history of the games. And the networks have always allotted more than a proportionate share of prime air time to things like women's gymnastics, swimming, and platform diving, but it's the way they're covering it in Athens that is making us wonder what the Olympics is really about.

If the events were truly airing live, we could chalk the whole thing up to the happenstance of a frenetic Olympic control room. But the whole thing is essentially a canned, pre-produced and editorially orchestrated event. These are not spontaneous moments of athletic pose, but carefully edited, erotic productions. The moment that nailed it for us, was during the platform diving competition when NBC purposely replayed an underwater camera angle of diminutive Australian diving beauty Loudy Tourky arising from the pool after a dive. The rear-angle shot lingered just long enough to capture the diver squatting, grabbing her bathing suit and stretching it over her bottom. We could almost hear the "snap!"

Not that there's anything wrong with Tourky's bottom, mind you. We're just questioning the amount of coverage NBC devoted to it. And why it's not devoting more coverage to other things, say truly historic sports moments. The fact is, we had more of an opportunity to gaze at the tattoo creeping out of Tourky's bathing suit bottom than we got to see of Mariel Zagunis' sabre. Zagunis became the first American woman ever to win a gold medal in fencing. Where were the super slow-mo camera shots of Zagunis' parry? Or, the photomontages of her riposte? Oh yeah, that's right. Zagunis was heavily clad in padded fencing attire, and wearing a mask to boot.

But NBC Sports maestro Dick Ebersol must know what he's doing. After all, the Olympics network is delivering Nielsen ratings gold, according to an update released today by Magna Global research chief Steve Sternberg. Through its first eight days, the Athens Games are averaging a 15.8 primetime household rating, up from a 14.7 during the same period in 2000 for the Sydney Games.

Primetime Household Ratings, Summer Olympics

	1992	1996	2000	2004
First Eight Days:	18.6	22.6	14.7	15.8
Days 9-17:	15.6	20.5	13.0	----
% Change:	-16%	-9%	-12%	----

Source: Magna Global USA analysis of copyrighted Nielsen Media Research data.